Carbery Heads South
It was confirmed earlier this afternoon that Joey Carbery will move to Munster next year for an undisclosed period. He moves from Leinster to hopefully get more game time in the 10 jersey and he will develop his game even more because he still has plenty to learn.
Leinster will have plenty of cover in the fly half department where players like Ross Byrne , Ciaran Frawley and Harry Byrne will now battle with each other to get a start when incumbent Johnny Sexton will away with Ireland.
The early talk was that Ulster were in pole position to sign either Byrne or Carbery but that talk died down rather quickly and the focus shifted to Carbery moving to Munster. Looking at the situation in Leinster when Carbery and Ross Byrne were picked together with Leinster Carbery was always selected at 15 and Byrne got the nod at 10.
Over the coming weeks it will be interesting to see what Munster decide to do with their log jam at fly half as you have a number of players with new contracts signed recently namely , Bill Johnston and Ian Keatley who have both signed two year deals for next year and the year after.
Tyler Bleyendaal and JJ Hanrahan have two years and a year to run on their deals so the IRFU will need to work with the players and Munster to see what can be done to make sure all parties will get game time next year.
Ireland should benefit in the long term from this move but while one solution is found another crops up, Ulster still don’t have a permanent solution to their issues at fly half. They will work closely with the IRFU to try and find a suitable replacement to play alongside Jonny Mc Phillips.
The other issue that this move will bring back up is the lack of players from other academies outside of Leinster being blooded. Many people will say that this move is weaking one province but you can be sure that this move is being made for the benefit of all the teams involved including giving players valued game time in their preferred positions.
He will be away with Ireland for extended periods like next November, and during the Six Nations period alongside the World Cup in late 2019. This move has been mooted and has now been confirmed so hopefully Joey Carbery can move on with his playing career and continue to perform to the best of his ability.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
31/05/2018